Marshall Nicholson, managing director of Chinese investment bank China International Capital Corp., was naturalized as a Chinese national and renounced his U.S. citizenship at the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong Friday, according to an email Mr. Nicholson sent to his friends and colleagues.

China and Hong Kong flags at Hong Kong’s Golden Bauhinia Square

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“I am very proud to say I have become Chinese,” Mr. Nicholson said in the email viewed by MoneyBeat.

Mr. Nicholson, who is married to a Chinese woman, came to Hong Kong almost 11 years ago from the U.S.

He was one of the first senior foreign hires at a Chinese bank when he joined BOC International Holdings Ltd, an investment banking unit of state-backed Bank of China Ltd., six years ago from Macquarie Group Ltd., where he was head of China equity capital markets.

Before moving to Asia, Mr. Nicholson worked at Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan in New York. In 2002, he was appointed managing director and head of equity capital markets, Asia excluding Japan, for the now-defunct Credit Suisse First Boston in Hong Kong.

Last year, he left BOCI to join CICC , the first joint-venture investment bank in China between foreign and domestic companies. U.S.-based private-equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and TPG Capital have stakes in CICC.

As a Chinese national with right of abode in Hong Kong, Mr. Nicholson will be eligible to hold a Home Return Permit for entering mainland China, and a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passport for international travel.

CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this post didn’t make clear that Mr. Nicholson will be issued with a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passport. As a Hong Kong citizen, he will be considered a Chinese national, but won’t be eligible for a mainland Chinese passport.